Maldives president quits after weeks of protest

Maldives police officers assume taking an oath before joining a protest against the military in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announced his resignation Tuesday following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)
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Maldives police officers assume taking an oath before joining a protest against the military in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announced his resignation Tuesday following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed speaks as he orders the country's upscale resorts to reopen their spas on Wednesday pending a Supreme Court decision on whether they violate Islam, in Kurumba Island Resort, Maldives. Nasheed has resigned following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain, File)— AP

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed speaks as he orders the country's upscale resorts to reopen their spas on Wednesday pending a Supreme Court decision on whether they violate Islam, in Kurumba Island Resort, Maldives. Nasheed has resigned following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain, File)
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Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announces his resignation in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Nasheed made the announcement following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)— AP

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announces his resignation in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Nasheed made the announcement following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)
/ AP

Opposition supporters and Maldives police officers shout at the military during a protest in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announced his resignation Tuesday following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. The crisis came to a head when hundreds of police started demonstrating in the capital after officials ordered them to withdraw protection for government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)— AP

Opposition supporters and Maldives police officers shout at the military during a protest in Male, Maldives, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed announced his resignation Tuesday following weeks of public protests over his controversial order to arrest a senior judge. The crisis came to a head when hundreds of police started demonstrating in the capital after officials ordered them to withdraw protection for government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other. (AP Photo/Sinan Hussain)
/ AP

MALE, Maldives 
The first democratically elected president of the Maldives resigned Tuesday and was replaced by his vice president after the police and army clashed in the streets of the island nation amid protests over the arrest of a top judge.

Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who previously worked as a top UNICEF official, was sworn in as the new Maldivian president in the afternoon.

The resignation marked a stunning fall for President Mohamed Nasheed, a former human rights campaigner who defeated the nation's longtime ruler in the country's first multiparty election. Nasheed was also an environmental celebrity, traveling the world to persuade governments to combat the climate change that could raise sea levels and inundate his archipelago nation.

Nasheed presented his resignation in a nationally televised address Tuesday afternoon after police joined the protesters and then clashed with soldiers in the streets. Some of the soldiers then defected to the police side.

"I don't want to hurt any Maldivian. I feel my staying on in power will only increase the problems, and it will hurt our citizens," Nasheed said. "So the best option available to me is to step down."

Hassan's office denied widespread reports that the military pressured Nasheed to resign in the wake of the clashes.

"It was not a coup at all, it was the wish of the people," said Ahmed Thoufeeg, Hassan's secretary.

The latest protests in this Indian Ocean nation known for its lavish beach resorts erupted after Nasheed ordered the military to arrest Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the Criminal Court. The judge had ordered the release of a government critic he said had been illegally detained.

The vice president, Supreme Court, Human Rights Commission, Judicial Services Commission and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have all called for Mohamed to be released.

The government accused the judge of political bias and corruption. It said that the country's judicial system had failed and called on the U.N to help solve the crisis.

After weeks of protests, the crisis came to a head Tuesday when hundreds of police started demonstrating in the capital, Male, after officials ordered them to withdraw protection for government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other. The withdrawal resulted in a clash that injured at least three people.

Later, troops fired rubber bullets and clashed with the police. When Nasheed visited the police and urged them to end the protest, they refused and instead chanted for his resignation.

Nasheed began his term with great hopes, ending Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's 30-year-reign by winning the country's first democratic elections in 2008. Supporters danced and cheered in the streets at the victory of the charismatic pro-democracy activist, who had been repeatedly jailed by Gayoom's regime.

Nasheed became an energetic global environmental crusader, founding the Climate Vulnerable Forum, to coordinate environmental policy among a group of about 30 countries most affected by climate change.

He held a Cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear to dramatize the threat of rising oceans to his low-lying archipelago nation of 300,000 people, and said he may need to relocate his entire population if nothing was done. He also announced plans to make his nation "carbon-neutral," using wind and solar projects.